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There are few resistance figures in American history as noble as Crazy Horse.

He led, long after he knew that ultimate defeat was inevitable, the most effective revolt on the plains, wiping out Custer and his men on the Little BigHorn. “Even the most basic outline of his life shows how great he was,” Ian Frazier writes in his book “Great Plains,” “because he remained himself from the moment of his birth to the moment he died; because he knew exactly where he wanted to live, and never left; because he may have surrendered, but he was never defeated in battle; because, although he was killed, even the Army admitted he was never captured; because he was so free that he didn’t know what a jail looked like.” His “dislike of the oncoming civilization was prophetic,” Frazier writes. “He never met the President” and “never rode on a train, slept in a boarding house, ate at a table.” And “unlike many people all over the world, when he met white men he was not diminished by the encounter.”

Crazy Horse was bayoneted to death on Sept. 5, 1877, after being tricked into walking toward the jail at Fort Robinson in Nebraska. The moment he understood the trap he pulled out a knife and fought back. Gen. Phil Sheridan had intended to ship Crazy Horse to the Dry Tortugas, a group of small islands in the Gulf of Mexico, where a U.S. Army garrison ran a prison with cells dug out of the coral. Crazy Horse, even when dying, refused to lie on the white man’s cot. He insisted on being placed on the floor. Armed soldiers stood by until he died. And when he breathed his last, Touch the Clouds, Crazy Horse’s seven-foot-tall Miniconjou friend, pointed to the blanket that covered the chief’s body and said, “This is the lodge of Crazy Horse.” His grieving parents buried Crazy Horse in an undisclosed location. Legend says that his bones turned to rocks and his joints to flint.

His ferocity of spirit remains a guiding light for all who seek lives of defiance.

54 Comments:

But now we have the playbook of the genocidal invaders who quite simply, are hell-bent on killing us and destroying our land.

It wasn't actually our land; we pretended it was, and have deeds to prove it. But in the end, the same monstrous forces of greed and rapacious capitalism that tried to eliminate the First Peoples (though thankfully, they failed) are still at it.

You guys talk about history like it's static and inconsequencial even today.

Like most people in the 30s, Woody Guthrie was either a part or a pawn promoting "white superiority" driving thousands of native americans off their lands and into reservations.

Was he a part or a pawn when he accepted an invitation from President Roosevelt to cheer up with songs the workers on the Grand Coulee Dam who were experiencing casualities while under construction?

Remember, this is the guy who wrote songs like "This Land Is Your Land."

For those of you who are not familiar with "American" history, plans for the Grand Coulee Dam ended forever the self-sustainability (initiating the final extinction) of the lake people living at the lower and upper end of the Colville Reservation at the time.

More and more treaties were broken by introducing more dams displacing thousands of native americans well into the 40s and 50s....

Do you think Woody cared about the plight of the American indians at the time? Is "This Land is your land" directed at just the white population? Is it possible that he didn't know?

It's a footnote in history the number of American Indians who lost their self-sustainability.

We are hardly "all Indians now" when we partake in a cultural practices and promote a history that set out to wipe them off the face of the planet.

Comparing the Occupy Wall Street protesters with the genocidal murder of millions upon million of indigenous people shows how ignorant we are about our own history and how even further away we are from reconciliation as a nation. Chris Rock said it all last week calling "July 4th" a white man's holiday. Of course it is, you dummies!

Does anyone actually believe that African Americans should celebrate anything other than Juneteenth or Emanicipation Day, Rosa Parks day, MLK Birthday, and Obama's inauguration? Blacks weren't even considered "human" upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Yes, they are Americans, but only until AFTER the Civil Rights movement 1970 when employers were forced to hire blacks because there were still so many bigots and racists who would not hire a black. How many Confederate Flags do you see in a week still? That's how many blacks don't get hired because of racial discrimination.

My dear MNOTR - "Comparing the Occupy Wall Street protesters with the genocidal murder of millions upon million of indigenous people shows how ignorant we are about our own history and how even further away we are from reconciliation as a nation. "

That is NOT what Hedges is saying at all.

Here's what he's saying: He's comparing the Occupy Wall Street protesters with the native Americans. As in the 99% are next. Hedges is comparing the elite 1% of today with European colonists of yesterday.

That is the history lesson.

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."~~George Santayana

Clearly, we are doomed because even when history is explicitly laid out, most seem to fail to understand and grasp the significance.

I like the post regarding the background to Crazy Horse the man. His stand and the inference of the naming of the band, to me, to take no prisoners and to be no prisoner. That is the freedom ringing of history. The circumstance which proves his metal and the story are AMERICAN, native or otherwise. The progress or regress of mankind which brings us to the debate are argument points of human endevour, human want, human desire, and human shortcomings. It's written all over history when ideology trumps the good of fellow man. Unfortunately, this needle skips thru history alot, thru many civilizations, and un-civil nations.

The things we grapple with now are inclusion and exclusion of society 1 or 99%ers, union or private employment and a whole bunch of f$%^cking propaganda to tell us how to believe or feel and sometimes to react or revolt.

Act locally to these causes you support. Smile on your brother, and sister, get informed and take a few minutes. All this retoric means nothing without the local effort. It seems futile sometimes, and it's easy to headline it from the paper and the pulpit. The process is there to use, and to change. But it won't happen on it's own. It is WE the people, not them, those people.

The needle doesn't skip through time, Sony. It carves out a pattern that only few are gifted at recognizing. You can't revere a great man by using his great name while singing the same songs that robbed his people of their dignity and their future.

@Anonymous 7/10/2012 06:10:00 PM - Yes, Neil is a 1%'r. But... and we know we'll see some serious flack on this ... he's part of the "good 1%".

As in, Bridge, Farm Aid, LV, Lionel, etc.

"I spend money as soon as I get it," reveals Young in the piece. "I don't care how much money I have, I can use it to do something. So I don't save money."Uncut Magazine (August 2012)

@MNOTR - we're sure that the irony is not lost on NY

@Dean - the 1% didn't start class warfare -- the 99% started it and are waging it mercilessly. We're always puzzled by either the defenders of the 1% on this blog or the 99%'rs capitulation. As the occupy sign says "They only call it CLASS WAR when we fight back".

Do not despair. Even in the deepest darkest places on earth, plants and animals survive because of bioluminescence.

We humans go to great lengths searching for truth. Others stand watch and wait for next day delivery. Only the bravest like Crazy Horse set out to protect what little light his people had left against the dark forces of evil.

You know, Thrasher or Saul Alinsky (what a great compliment BTW), I stand by you 100%.

The 1% are irresponsible and selfish people who actually believe they came into their wealth without consequences. The consequences perpetuating a system of inequities that divide us keeping people from the same medical care and treatment as the 1%. The system that allows a very small group to profit at the expense of other people and the land they live on.

No, I don't believe Neil is among the 1% no matter how much money he has.

I don't know what anyone here does for a living? I do well for myself, I'm not a 1%er. I work, I pay my bills/taxes, I own my houses, cars etc... I don't take from anyone. Remember, you can change your situation anytime. People need to stop blaming others and have some accountability for themselves.

The whole, "1% vs. 99%" crap will be forgotten when the next fad blows by.

LOL ya I bet those 3.1 million jobs are lapping it up in luxury on their yachts, multiple homes, and youth spas while laughing off the human expense upon which they acquired their fortune. Greed today takes on all incarnations even during tribal council meetings. We can light the candle or be the person fighting to keep it going. Which one are you anon?

"Native societies, in which people redistributed wealth to gain respect, and in which those who hoarded were detested, upheld a communal ethic that had to be obliterated and replaced with the greed, ceaseless exploitation and cult of the self that fuel capitalist expansion. Lewis Henry Morgan in his book “League of the Iroquois,” written in 1851 after he lived among them, noted that the Iroquois’ “whole civil policy was averse to the concentration of power in the hands of any single individual, but inclined to the opposite principle of division among a number of equals. …” This was a way of relating to each other, as well as to the natural world, that was an anathema to the European colonizers. "~~Chris Hedges

Dean, listen to one of those racist talk shows much going on about personal accountability? Next time you run into one of those "welfare" moms you know, mention personal accountability to them while they're in the check out line. I think you owe them that much since apparently youre picking up the tab. Or maybe you like it when woman are penniless and powerless because they make better lovers?

Thrasher, the observation made here must have been a student or reader of Karl Marx's theories. The connection here is brilliant and also explain why it was so easy for missionaries to convert to Christianity. The focus on individual responsibility for the greater good was probably very appealing to American Indians but also very confusing when they saw the contradiction in practice.

In any case, Crazy Horse is an American Hero although he isn't recognized as one in the history books our children read. How do we explain that to children studying their history? How do we tell them that much of their own history is driven on a belief that white people were superior to non whites? That the early settlers belief in a very strict and dogmatic Christian God justified their actions to encroach on non believers? Our system of governing is based on an ancient form of democracy loosely packaged in a God we trust but we're not quite sure if it was a God promoting enlightenment or a single brand of Christianity?

Can Crazy Horse ever be elevated to a Lincoln or Jefferson in our hero worship of great Americans?

I wonder what Crazy Horse would have said if he knew how much Western Civilization has totally obliterated the planet. Ruining civilizations, causing genocide, forcing religion and beliefs on others, the total annihilation of ethnic groups (Jews), causing economic mayhem, global warming and all that comes with world dominance. What’s sad it will be repeated over and over by other dominant civilizations till we are no more. That the nature of the beast.

The interesting point about Crazy Horse (rather: Ta-Shunka-Witco) is how little we know about him.He's mythologized all around, and here as well, an 'American hero' (by the way, why not 'Native American hero'?), but in fact much about his life, acts and feelings is uncertain. Yes, he was in the Fetterman fight, the Wagon Box fight and at the Little Big Horn, but he wasn't a chief like Red Cloud or a visionary like Sitting Bull - he was a brave warrior, fascinating to the Sioux because they didn't quite know what to make of him. His Sioux contemporaries called him 'Our Strange Man'.He left no records or possessions. If he ever held a speech, it wasn't recorded (his 'deathbed speech' is almost certainly a fabrication).So, what do we know? That, of course, is exactly the reason why he's such a mythic figure now: we can project all kinds of stuff and obsessions onto him. Like the 1%/99%-class war stuff which, in my opinion, would probably have baffled him.

@Tim - Yes, what would Crazy Horse say? Ar for that matter, Jesus, Buddah, Allah, Moses or practically any other wise philosopher from the past. Our inability to grasp the concept of sustainability is totally surreal.

@Dean - we're a blogger, therefore Ctrl + V is our preferred tool.

@05:44:00 PM, Blogger anon: fair question. We attempted to deflect that by stating above about the "good 1%". So the logical flip side is the "bad 1%". That's what this is about.

So are we stereotyping the bad 1%? Well, if you consider stereotyping greedy, evil people as greedy, evil people, than guilty.

Thousand pelts, by projecting our obsessions with him like naming a beer, pizza joint, and steak house after him?

There are pictographs and documented interviews with people who were with him until he was murdered. Are you calling those people liars? There are personal and historical accounts documented and archived at the Smithsonian, academic papers, and tribal academic research. Are you saying it's all a fabrication?

His superior warfare skills and bravery are not myth. His resistance to the white people's and missionariese and the evil it brought upon his people is not myth. The sacrifices he made for the greater good of his people is not myth. He has a place among the greatest American heroes and is deserving of the accolade and recognition for his accomplishments.

So I will assume that neither of you work. Who pays for you to live? Parents, friends? I personally don't care. I'm trying to figure out where your views come from. I'm starting my own movement. "Occupy Skid Row" We will target the bottom 25% that earn less than $20K a year.

@MNOTR: sorty, you forgot one, right after the beer, pizza and steakhouse: the band.and no, of course it's not all a fabrication, I never said so (read the post again). But in my opinion respect for a Native American hero, which he was, is not putting him in front to pull your own cart. I don't think we should use him, or any other Native American hero, as tokens in modern day political and ideological warfare.having said that, don't you think there's something obsessive about the sculpture that's being carved out of the Black Hills in his name? Pardon me, but it looks like something out of the Third Reich.. I'd rather see a Sioux headdress or beaded shirt any day...

Hey Dean, i didnt see your question. All my views come from my personal experience and watching arrested development and the Simpsons. I also watch reruns of 30 rock and parks and recreation. I haven't turned on the news since Reagan took office. After I saw the news job they did on him I lost all faith in the news.

@03:11:00 PM, Anonymous: No, we said community organizer. Not communist. Big difference.

So what makes you think that he was a communist?

When asked during an interview whether he ever considered becoming a Communist party member, Alinsky replied:

"Not at any time. I've never joined any organization—not even the ones I've organized myself. I prize my own independence too much. And philosophically, I could never accept any rigid dogma or ideology, whether it's Christianity or Marxism. One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you're right.' If you don't have that, if you think you've got an inside track to absolute truth, you become doctrinaire, humorless and intellectually constipated. The greatest crimes in history have been perpetrated by such religious and political and racial fanatics, from the persecutions of the Inquisition on down to Communist purges and Nazi genocide."~~"Playboy Interview: Saul Alinsky". Playboy Magazine. March 1972.

Do not try and smear us or Alinsky. Your MCcarthy-ite tactics will be your downfall.

It's unfortunate how we focus on the worse examples of socialism and communism forgetting what Jesus's teachings and description of heaven will be like. Followers of this very beautiful prophet forget at the very core of his teaching are self respect and working on behalf if the greater good which are foundational in communism and socialist theory. Jesus was a radical communist and socialist. Ironically Marx thought religion in general was an opiate to people. Of course Marx is writing during a very interesting time when Christianity dogma was being threatened by the God of enlightenment. Long story short, I also think Mt Rushmore is a travesty and offensive considering the sacredness of that holy ground. And because Neil named his band after this great American hero, I'm sure most people know it was his way of honoring and showing respect. To most people the irony of Americana is secondary to the significance of a band reunion. That much I understand. Phase one. In which Doris eats her oats.

I share your sentiment about exploiting his name. Our family and friends are torn over that carving. I think Mt. Rushmore belongs to the Lakota/Sioux, not the US government or NPS. It should be left to his family and council to decide a memorial or honoring spot m.

Dean, I'm glad you mentioned that book & movie. Chris Eyre is one of my favorite filmmakers. I wish he made more movies. Did you see Smoke Signals? Remember that scene when they're in the kitchen watching an old American western.

I forget when that movie was made but it was poetic justice much like LWW was when it first came out. God Bless Chris Eyre and Neil Young and anyone else for sharing their passion and love for their fellow human beings.